Agitator-conveyer for driers and the like.



F. l. STOKES. AGITAToR CONVEYER Fon DHIERS AND THE LIKE.

APPLICATION FILED JUNE 3,1916- Patented Jan. 15, 1918.

Alllll va citizen of the/United States,

ENT @FFEQ AGITTORCONVEYER FOR DRERS AND THE LiKE.

specineation of tet-ters Patent. Patented Jan., t5, 119118.

. Application led .Tune 3, 1916. Serial No. 101,600.

To all whom t may concern: Y v

Be it 4known that l, FRANCIS J. S'ronns, residing at Philadelphia, in the county of Philadelphia and State of Pennsylvania, have invented a certain new and useful Agitator-Conveyer for Driers and the like, of which the following is a specification.

'lhe principal object of the present invention is to reduce the power required to drive the agitator-conveyers of driers and the like without reducing their eciency or efective'- ness, and for the accomplishmentJ of this object my invention, generally stated, comprises a'construction and relative arrangement of the conveyer flights, by which the latter may not operate in opposition to each other upon the material upon which they 'are working, and in which one of the flights of unlike spiral 'direction is interrupted and the other is continuous at the crossing of the pitch lines of the flights, so that the material operated upon by the continuous flight may pass along the wall of the casing and freely through or past the space formed by the interrupted Hight and thus reduce the power required to turn the agitatorconveyer. v

The invention will be claimed at the end hereof but will be firstdescribed in connection with atype of dryingchamber chosen lfrom other like apparatus forillustration in the accompanying drawings forming part hereof and in which- Figure l, is an elevational view, partly section, and I Fig. 2, is a transverse section taken on the v1in@ 2 2, @t Fig. i.

ln the application ofthe invention selected for the sake of description, the outlet l, of the casing 2, is at the centen midway i of its length, so thatthe parts of the agitator-conveyer on each side of the outlet are shown as relatively I.reversed but otherwise alike, and a description of one end will therefore suce. The flight 3, is of spiral direction appropriate for conveying, while agitating, material -in the direction of from Y the outlet` l,i-.to one end of the casing. rllhe flights 4, are 'of'opposite and appropriate spiral direction for feeding, while agitating, material in the direction of from an end of the casing to the outlet l. This description assumes that vrotation 'of the shaft 5, which carries the blades or strips constitu the dight, is appropriate, for it is at the crossing of the pitch lines of the ights, sothat the discontinuous flight, consists of sections, in the present instance three sections, 4two of which, marked 4, are spaced apart as at 6, and each section is relatively short in comparison with the flight 3. 7, are arms radiating from the shaft 5, and they carry the flights of the conveyer-agitator. The arms which carry the discontinuous flights, are shown as longer than the arms which carry the continuous flight 3, so that the flights 4, are nearer to the casing wall than the flights 3.

IIn use the ights operate to convey material in the casing toward and away from the center and so agitate it, and when the outlet is open they serve to discharge the material from the casing. The spaces 6, in the-discontinuous conveyer, or Vmore accurately between the sections which make up that conveyer, occur where the conveyer 3, crosses the pitch line of the discontinuous conveyer 4, so that these spaces afford passages through which material driveny by the conveyers, freely passes, and as the matemal acted upon is frequently viscous and heavy, especially at the beginning of the drying operation, this eiiects an economy in the power required to drive the machine. The sections of conveyer 1l, nearest the end of the casing 2, and the outlet 1, are arranged in the same spiral line, and the intermediate section 4 is arranged in a dilerent Ibut parallel spiral line and opposite to the spaces 6, so as to brid e the space v6, between the two rst men ionedsections and generally equalize the effect of the two spirals. Moreover the sections 4B, scrape the spaces 6, and so when lltltl be said that although the Hights l and t,

are in parallel spiralsthey appear to cross eachother at the spaces 6, but that appear- :rance is due to the fact that Vthe spaces 6, and

the flights Ll, are shown diametrically opposite in respect to the casing, or perhaps more accurately, in respect to an imaginary cylinder inclosing the spiralights.

What ll claim is:

l. lin apparatus of the type recited the combination of a stationary normally closed casing, and revoluble agitator-conveyer flights ofright and lefthand spiral direction adapted to coperate with the wall of 5 the casing and of which one is continuous and the other consists of sections spaced apart at the crossings of the pitch lines of the spirals, substantially as described.

2. In apparatus of the type recited the 10 combination of a stationary normally closed casing, and revoluble agitatorconveyer flights of right and lefthand spiral direction adapted to coperate with the Wall of the casing and of which one is continuous and the other comprises sections spaced apart at the crossings of the pitch lines of the spirals and also other sections arranged on parallel spiral lines and opposite the spaces between the rst mentioned sections.

FRANCIS J. STOKES. 

